Public D&D Playtests To Begin On May 24th

mhensley · Apr 26, 2012

No one voice can rise above the others...

I wonder if he's talking about any one voice in particular? :hmm:

Thulcondar · Apr 26, 2012

Kynn said:
I'm surprised they put a date on it this far out. It seems to me that they needed to do something to reassure the public that the sky isn't falling due to Monte's departure, and so they announced the start of the public playtest.

Otherwise, I suspect they might have kept the exact date private for a while longer; it clearly wasn't their intention, I suspect, to make the announcement today.

I disagree. The timing of the announcement seems pretty obvious, being 30 days away.

Unless you're saying they moved up the start of the open playtest as some sort of distraction from the news of Cook's withdrawal? I'm not sure I'd buy that.

Kynn · Apr 26, 2012

Thulcondar said:
I disagree. The timing of the announcement seems pretty obvious, being 30 days away.

Unless you're saying they moved up the start of the open playtest as some sort of distraction from the news of Cook's withdrawal? I'm not sure I'd buy that.

I'm not saying that at all.

I'm saying that it's unlikely they would have given us 30 days notice (why that number? why bother with a pre-announcement at all?) today if not for needing to put out some good news about 5e.

Do you really think that they were planning to announce the open playtest today and it's a coincidence that Monte made his announcement? Because that would be really hard to believe.

More likely they were going to give a week or two advance notice of the playtest -- if they were going to do that at all -- and because they needed good PR they made the announcement early (today).

BobTheNob · Apr 26, 2012

So is this public as in snippets are released on Web, or public as in we are holding an (invitational?) event and you will get to see some if you turn up? Cause living in Australia doesnt afford one many opportunity to attend such events.

Tom Servo · Apr 26, 2012

Thulcondar said:
I disagree. The timing of the announcement seems pretty obvious, being 30 days away.

Unless you're saying they moved up the start of the open playtest as some sort of distraction from the news of Cook's withdrawal? I'm not sure I'd buy that.

I feel like I'm being taken for a fool. Announcing the playtest date in the same breath as responding to Cook's departure? Never mind that horrible thing over there, look at this sparkly thingie! And we all go "Ooooooo."

Horrible news horribly dealt with by WotC. It reminds me of all the reasons I stopped supporting that company years ago. Ugh. I'll keep an eye on 5th edition, but my enthusiasm is greatly reduced.

GX.Sigma · Apr 26, 2012

Correlation does not imply causation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Greatwyrm · Apr 26, 2012

I could be mistaken, but didn't they say in the PAX video that they were only like 10% - 20% done with the first real draft of the rules? Something like six weeks later, we're ready for public playtesting? Somebody show me I've missed something, please.

Raith5 · Apr 26, 2012

Ahnehnois said:
[Speculation]Maybe Monte Cook did leave for creative reasons, perhaps because something was in the playtest document (or was left out) that he considered unacceptable. Let's hope this does reflect a stand on principle; we've had too few of those.[/Speculation]

He has said a little bit more on his webpage that suggests it was a difference of opinion: Welcome!

Kurtomatic · Apr 26, 2012

Greatwyrm said:
I could be mistaken, but didn't they say in the PAX video that they were only like 10% - 20% done with the first real draft of the rules? Something like six weeks later, we're ready for public playtesting? Somebody show me I've missed something, please.

It's not a beta test or a release candidate. We're not testing a feature complete draft after 2 years of development. This is not like the open PF beta.

This is near the front side of the project cycle; after 6 months of development, we get to review a design demo. The real implementation won't begin until they've collected results from this testing.

Gundark · Apr 26, 2012

grimslade said:
PR in motion. Monte announces he is leaving, WotC announces Open Playtest date.
Well played. The discussion will be split between the oh noes of Monte leaving and the excitement of getting hands on the proto-rule set. There is also a short window left of speculation on rules. Interesting times.

Yeah good move by Mearls to do some damage control. I bet the May 24th date wasn't meant to be announced just yet...but given the circumstances